Dazzling Dubai

 

Dubai

DAYS 76-78 - A magical city of 1.7 million people, Dubai is one of the world’s newest and most glamorous world destinations.  We arrived here on March 24th.

One of the 7 Emirates (kingdoms) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE – total population of 7 million), Dubai was literally built into the city of today beginning in 1995…a mecca of marvels and dreams that developed in less than 15 years.

The word “superlative” cannot truly describe what this city has accomplished in distinguishing itself from all other cities in the world.

Among the superlatives are:

• World’s tallest building (the Burj Khalifa -162 floors, 2,717 feet high – designed by Skidmore, Owens, & Merrill)
• World’s largest shopping center (7,600 stores)
• Three huge offshore islands created with reclaimed land in the shapes of palm trees, and a complex of 300 islands in the shape of a globe of the world…all for sale…the palm islands and world globe can be seen from outer space!
• Mammoth desalination facilities that provide all of the water needed for the entire seven emirates.
• Two 7-star hotels, one built with only 200 two-room suites running $15,000 per night – at the Atlantis Hotel you can have dinner in rooms surrounded by one of the world’s largest lagoons with an indoor aquarium.
• World’s largest private yacht (owned by a Sheikh)
• World’s most expensive cocktail - $24,000 U.S. dollars
• Camel racing (they can run 10 mph!)
• An elevated AND underground monorail system that runs 24/7 for miles, all run by computers and robots – no human drivers.
• Splendid freeways and all other civil infrastructure that was built before the city’s remarkably rapid building development
• Sheikhs’ homes and palaces with 24-carat larger-than-life gold prancing horses statues at gated entrances, and a gold-plated UAE flagpole that cost over a million U.S. dollars.
• Planning is underway for a new 12-story spherical-shaped glass hotel with 5 floors above the water and yes, 7 stories under the water, so you can literally become part of the sea life!
• The sheikh-owned retired Queen Elizabeth II ocean liner that is currently under renovation is docked here to become a hotel to be located at one of the Palm Islands.
• The 7 Emirates all share their resources with each other – oil, natural gas, water, tourism, international trade, and more.  Oil-rich sheikhs provide vast resources to the people of their country for things such as health services, hospitals, education, historical museums, etc. – making these sheikhs very popular with their people – a very unique way of governing!
• There are NO taxes on the people or the visitors in the Emirates!
• There is no graffiti, no bars on windows, no homeless people, and virtually no litter in Dubai.

We packed as much exploring in to our two full days and nights in Dubai as we could, only touching some of the adventures travelers can experience in this city – truly a desert oasis in every way.

Nearly 80% of the “locals” are Muslims of the Islamic faith, and only 20% of the population was born in Dubai…the other 80% are those who immigrated to the UAE from Middle Eastern countries such as Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, India, Egypt, Jordan, and many other countries.  (It is VERY difficult to become a permanent resident of the UAE.)

Don’t plan on moving here any time soon unless you have a spare $5 million or more to purchase a 1,200 square foot high-rise condo unit…everything in Dubai is super, super expensive!  The best bargains to be found are gold jewelry and technology products, and bartering for lower prices is expected.

I am hoping some of my friends who are civil engineers, architects, and landscape architects, in Phoenix and elsewhere, have been part of the phenomenal project planning here in Dubai – I know several firms have already opened satellite offices here in this exciting city of opportunity.

Our overall impression of Dubai can be summarized by saying it is one of the cleanest, safest, most glamorous and welcoming tourism-based cities we’ve ever visited in the world.

Below are some selected photos from a few of our adventures here:

The spectacular architecture of the Burj Al Arab hotel with its sail-shaped design.  It sits on  a jutting peninsula of reclaimed land by Jumiera Beach, surrounded by crystal waters; the extending platform at the top is a heliport.

This misty, blowing sand view of one section of the Dubai skyline shows the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, on the far right.  (At night the lights on this building and all the others are stunningly gorgeous.)

Looking in on Ski Dubai located in the Mall of the Emirates as a skier makes his way down the Olympic-designed ski run, complete with real snow, ski lifts and a below freezing constant temperature.  (Outside it was 89  degrees!)

The world’s largest private yacht – owned by a sheik oil baron.  There are 55 crew members.  As you can see in the background, the harbor is surrounded by sand dunes and very arid desert.

One of the many beautiful Muslim mosques found throughout Dubai…all have very intricate carvings on the domes, minarets, doors, and other exterior and interior building surfaces.

  Here’s Larry, hanging on to his Panama hat in the wind, as we went out into the sand dunes and desert areas that surround Dubai in 4-wheel drive jeeps for an “Arabian Night” of exploring, camel rides, and sand boarding; we also enjoyed a traditional dinner of local foods served in Bedouin tents in the cooler evening hours.  (The jeep driver stopped to let air out of the tires so we could make it through the sand dunes to reach the camels and tents.)

 Sand surfing – some experienced snow boarders made it all the way down the high sand dunes without falling on their fannies!

This young lady wrapped up our campfire evening in the desert as we sat around on large carpets on the sand and watched this very talented belly dancer strut her stuff!

The second night we were in port we took an open-top double-decker bus all over Dubai to see the city lights everywhere…it is spectacular.  Above is the Atlantis Hotel on Palm Jumeriah (Palm Island).  This is the hotel with one of the world’s largest lagoons/aquariums where you can eat dinner completely surrounded by the aquarium’s glass walls of water filled with amazing creatures from the sea.

 Here I am, gleefully transitioning from horseback riding to camelback riding…what a blast!  Actually, after a rather jerky ride as the camel stood up when I got aboard, the gait of a camel is like a wonderful rocking chair…very comfortable.

 Couldn’t resist sharing this with you…these are copies of full length and detail portrait photos taken on board our ship of my new sari that I purchased in Dubai…I really did learn how to wrap myself up in 7 yards of fabric the correct way!

The sun sets under the bow and ropes of our tethered cruise ship at the dock on our last day in Dubai.

We now depart for several port stops to the south in the very U.S.-friendly country of Oman, and then we continue on through the Red Sea toward the Suez Canal.  On today’s date we have traveled more than 23,500 nautical miles since the beginning of our voyage.

TRAVEL NOTE:  To put our family and friends at ease, even though there is great unrest in many of the Middle Eastern countries coming up soon on our itinerary, our ship’s captain continues to assure us that we will be sailing safely through these now-famous treacherous waters off the coasts of Africa, Yemen,  Somalia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel.  The US Navy and the Navy ships of many other countries are tracking us and other cruise ships closely on monitors, radar, and available helicopters through the waters of the Arabian Sea, Gulf of Aden, the Red Sea and Suez Canal. 

Our ship also has a large staff of security personnel on board who monitor our ship’s every move 24/7.  Huge cruise ships like ours have decks so high and such powerful speed that pirates cannot really board us anyway.  We also have an array of night vision capabilities and other (not-described) “protective measures” that can be utilized in case any pirates decide to try their luck anyway!

If, at any time, the travel conditions change on our current travel route, our captain will make the proper and timely decisions to keep all of us on the ms Amsterdam safe.

Iconic India

India

DAYS 72-76 – We have journeyed into two ports, Kochi  (Cochin) and Mumbai (Bombay), in the culturally fascinating country of India.   Heavily populated with iconic figures from Hindu ancestry - a wide assortment of multi-armed gods and goddesses – we quickly became educated about many of the beliefs and customs of this Indian culture.

Arriving first in Kochi, near the southern tip of India, we discovered a tropical, palm tree-covered beautiful countryside with hundreds of fish, shrimp and crab farms, which clearly contrasted with the litter-strewn streets and hundreds of construction cranes at work everywhere in the bustling city center.  Growth, rapid growth, is the name of the game here.

When we braved our way out of our tour buses, we were mobbed by vendors eager to show us their wares…everything from handcrafted drums and other musical instruments to colorful jewelry and fabrics.  Known for the profuse production of beautiful silk and cotton saris, this land is also known for being a religious center of the world where most of the people, especially women, shy away quickly from tourists’ cameras.

There are huge, gorgeous Hindu mosques and temples everywhere, easily identified by the many pairs of shoes left outside the entrances.  And to serve the people who must ride the buses to work who cannot make it to a mosque for morning prayer, there are small little temples provided at many of the bus stops.

Here are some of the memorable images of Kochi:

This unique way of fishing using big nets suspended by broad wooden supports were set up all along the Kochin area’s shorelines.

  India’s unique 3-wheeled taxi cabs zoom in and out of traffic everywhere.

Fish, shrimp and crab farms are large, rectangular shallow water catchments that are owned by different families.  These people, once the poorest in their country, are now some of the richest, as the demand for foreign exports of their farms’ products have increased worldwide.

This bundle of wires is typical of every street corner in the Kochi city center area.  We wonder how on earth the electrical crews can make sense of all of this!

Mumbai (formerly Bombay)…think 22 million.  That’s the current population of this ever-growing city, the sixth largest metropolitan area in the world.  The port is on the west side of India, and most of the city is situated at sea level.

This city is overwhelming in size and diversity.  From old 16th century gothic buildings to today’s numerous Indian film industry productions in Mumbai, informally named Bollywood (800 films per year) , we did our best to explore as much as we could in two days, but really only scratched the surface of this fascinating metropolis.

People are everywhere.  Streets are jammed with both people and traffic.  And there are beautiful trees, farmers’ markets, Hindu icons, temples, street vendors, and restaurants with all the world’s cuisines, literally everywhere in Mumbai.  This city’s harbor is truly the gateway to India.

Here are a few photo highlights of our on-shore excursions:

The markets are absolutely gorgeous…everything is fresh-picked and ripe enough to eat on the spot!  Spices, vegetables, fruits, and very friendly vendors made this stop a true treat.

 If people can’t get to the market,  daily home delivery of fresh fruits and vegetables were available… sounded pretty nice to me…every day, including Sundays, vendors bring their carts and people lower their baskets and rupee dollars from ropes above in three and four-story small apartments found all over the villages within the city.

This young couple and their darling baby in a second story apartment window were ordering from the vegetable vendor and gave us a warm wave from their baby.

Typical Monday morning human rush hour…people fill the streets trying to get from one place to the next within the city.

Cows and oxen are protected everywhere in India, and it is considered good luck to feed the cows…so of course I jumped right into that.

Ox carts move right along with the buses, bicycles, taxis, and other traffic in all of the city streets.

People balance heavy trays of fruits, vegetables, flowers, and large bags of all kinds of products and laundry on their heads in India.

 We stopped in a small shop to see the beautiful sari fabrics, and Larry loved the colors in this 3-meters long sari, so this very sweet shop clerk wound me up in it properly…and I ended up buying it!

We leave India now and head directly west across the Indian Ocean toward a 3-day stay in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates…one of the most unique and fascinating modern cities of the world.  (Our ship’s captain assured us we would be perfectly safe and that we had all types of ship security, night vision capabilities, and “special ways” to deter any pirates approaching us as we enter into some of these upcoming foreign waters.)

Visiting Vietnam and Sensational Singapore

Vietnam and

Singapore

DAYS 63-68 – Leaving Hong Kong late in the evening of March 8th, we headed in a southwesterly direction to the intriguing, and very emotional, nation of Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon).  This is only the second Communist nation we’ve ever visited…Russia was the first in 2009.

To get to Ho Chi Minh City we sailed into the Mekong River Delta to reach Phu My (pronounced Foo Me), a port located on the Saigon River.  From the port 600 of our cruise ship passengers traveled with us by 25 motor coaches for 2 hours north to the city of Saigon. 

Our Vietnamese excursion guide was a Catholic, a Communist, and an excellent Communicator!  He told of the differences between the southern Vietnamese people and those from the north…and he was very sensitive to the emotional connection all Americans have with Vietnam.  He basically told us that their government, based in the north in Hanoi, does not get deeply involved in a lot of their southern area daily lives, but that everything was pretty much managed or owned by the Communist government now.

Here are a few photos from Vietnam:

Morning traffic, in fact, nearly ALL the traffic consists of thousands of workers on motorized scooters that totally fill the roadways!  (Real Hondas are $1,500 U.S.,  and you can buy a “Hongda” look-alike for $300 U.S. in Vietnam.)  At 3:30 p.m., the huge trucks carrying the port–area shipping containers are allowed on the roadways, slowing bus and car traffic down to 3 mph for hours.

We visited the botanical gardens in Saigon where they were walking live elephants around for the children to enjoy while they were visiting there.  An adult oil painting class was also doing floral paintings at the gardens.

These are the restored gates to the former South Vietnam Presidential Palace.  Two huge battle tanks, one from Russia and one from China, are on display here…signifying the date in 1975, when the tanks broke through the gates to the United States Embassy and this Palace, to signal the end of the Vietnam War. and the beginning of Communist rule.   We toured the Palace and a few of the maze of underground tunnels and rooms that linked many of the Saigon buildings with each other during the war.  The Palace is now being used for meetings and events held by the Vietnam government.

We started seeing many dragon figures and Buddha figures everywhere while in Vietnam.  There are also many Catholic churches, and we visited one beautiful Notre Dame cathedral in Saigon.

We toured a fantastic lacquer art factory and saw how the craftspeople tediously applied mother-of-pearl, paint, crushed eggshells, and other materials to all types of furniture, wall hangings, platters, etc.  These exquisite chairs and table were quite expensive, and the work that goes into them helps explain their prices!

Dusk as we sail out of the heavy boat traffic in the Mekong Delta and head south toward Singapore.

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A note about the earthquake in Japan….

Upon our return from our Vietnam land excursion late in the afternoon we learned of the horrific earthquakes and tsunamis in Japan.  Our cruise from Hong Kong to Singapore places us just west of the Pacific Ocean, in the South China Sea, and, according to our ship’s captain, out of any tsunami danger.  Our hearts go out to everyone who has been involved in this unprecedented natural disaster.

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We arrived in the city of Singapore, in the island Republic of Singapore, early in the morning, March 13th, days 67 and 68 of our voyage.  This is the one of the busiest ports in the world…it is filled with oil tankers and hundreds of container ships.  Singapore is a tiny country at the tip of the slender Malay Peninsula, just 90 miles north of the equator, so the climate is tropical.

When we reached the Singapore port our ship’s log shows we have traveled slightly more than 18,600 nautical miles, and we have consumed 80,000 gallons of diesel fuel and produced 420,000 gallons of potable water!  We average 18 knots per hour.

Without doubt, the nation island and city of Singapore have been the most environmentally impressive port locations we have visited thus far on our cruise. 

The city is spotlessly clean, the country produces its own fresh water, has a beautiful urban monorail system, magnificent high rise buildings, and all energy and communications systems are managed underground.  There is no graffiti, and there are no homeless people because Singapore won’t allow this.  The city is renowned for being one of the safest places in the world to live.  We would have enjoyed staying two weeks here, rather than two days!

Here are a few photos with some of the highlights of our fast-paced exploring of Singapore:

Yes, this is one of the really contemporary new high rise hotel and office buildings in Singapore…look closely at the top horizontal connecting piece…it is a huge interpretation of a cruising ship – it holds a fantastic restaurant seating hundreds of guests, a swimming pool, and many additional amenities - all overlooking the harbor.

As you would expect, there is a very large Chinatown section of Singapore, with all kinds of herbal and healing potion stores and beautiful Chinese clothing.

Large scale public art is found all over the streets and in huge shopping centers throughout Singapore..the art pieces are often whimsical and very colorful interpretive art representing some of the city’s most appealing attractions…hence the tropical flowers.

We visited the Jurong Bird Park, one of the largest open aviaries in the world (4,600 birds and 380 species) and this little female Australian Lory decided that Larry’s hat and sunglasses looked like a great place to land for a little rest from flying around in the trees.

This Mongolian horseman gave a wonderful demonstration of falconry at the Bird Park, obviously a favorite part of the time I spent with hundreds of types of birds…everything from penguins to flamingos, parrots to vultures.

The world renowned Singapore Botanical Gardens had the most extensive orchid collection we’d ever seen.  This little yellow orchid has the common name “dancing ladies”  and if you picture the big yellow areas as skirts, you can see the arms, head, red belt, and even a hat ornament in the figure of a woman in this little floral jewel.

This strange figure is called a “Merlion” and it is the signature logo seen on many Singapore tourism materials.  This figure depicts the head of a lion and the body of a mermaid, telling the story of how a man hunting a lion discovered the harbor that later became the city of Singapore.

And finally, as we leave Singapore harbor, I wanted to share the nearing completion of the construction of the most unusual condominium high rises I’ve ever seen…no, you’re not seeing the tipping over of buildings…these are actually designed to be this way!

Our next blog will be about our ports of call in India…three sailing days away from Singapore.

 

 

 

Exploring the Coral and South China Seas

Papua New Guinea,

Philippine Islands,

and Hong Kong

DAYS 53-62 – We are making our way northward from Australia to Hong Kong, once again crossing back over the equator on February 28th.  We have already logged more than 17,000 nautical miles on our journey!  (Day 55 on March 1st was the half-way point of our trip.)

The Coral Sea separates Australia from the large island of Papua New Guinea, and it is really just a short distance away from Australia.  Our cruise itinerary, however, took us around the close southern point of the island to the eastern coastline and the absolutely charming port of Madang.

The island of New Guinea is divided almost right down the middle between Indonesian rule on the west and British protectorate government on the east.  Nearly 80% of the people living in Papua New Guinea enjoy a very happy, simple lifestyle in small villages encircled by lush banana and mango trees, coconut palms, fishing areas, and cocoa plantations; they have schools, hospitals, and all of the basic necessities for enjoyable lives.    

It seemed the entire Madang community lined the streets, all waving, upon our arrival.  Native dancers and music greeted our cruise ship as we pulled in at the dock.  The rough village roads led us to the homes of some of the happiest people we’ve ever seen, all smiling and waving as we traveled about in the islanders’ locally-owned non-air-conditioned vans.  The children are irresistible.  Larry and I both thought if we closed our eyes we would think we were right back in the heart of Africa, as the villagers’ homes and life styles were very, very similar.

 The Papua New Guinea (PNG) village homes are all raised on stilts to prevent any high- tide damage.  Family elders are highly regarded and live in small homes built close to the main house.  Thick jungle surrounds all of the villages, and captured rain water is used for daily living needs.

The men and women (many ladies are topless) have frequent drum-accompanied traditional tribal dances in the PNG villages.  Blink your eyes and you feel you are in the African continent thousands of miles away.

Every little one giggles shyly when the camera is aimed at them…then they all want to see their photos in our digital cameras and video recorders!  I love the vivid, hard-to-forget mental images of these warm, happy PNG people.

Manila, Philippines is totally intriguing!  We were impressed with the huge number of 60-story buildings (maximum due to earthquakes) and the contemporary shopping centers that seemed to go on forever with all of our familiar American and European brands of clothing, shoes, cosmetics, and other drugstore items.  We arrived on March 4th and spent two days in Manila.

Manila Bay is a huge ferry terminal for the 1,703 islands that make up the Philippine Islands.  Ferry boats make hundreds of trips day and night to get people back and forth from islands into Manila’s city center.

There are many, many high rises in downtown Manila that house all kinds of well-known international business, banking, and trade companies.

Horses!  I jumped at the opportunity to take a ride in this horse cart drawn by a Spanish-bred bay gelding at one of the Manila parks.  It was wonderful to hear the clop-clop of horseshoes again…I am in the cart with a friend we met from Florida who is on the cruise ship with us.

There is extreme wealth and extreme poverty side by side within the Manila central city areas.   We drove to the presidential palace estate area to have an unforgettable lunch at the historic home of one of Manila’s founding Spanish-reign families, and this area was completely surrounded by makeshift homes that looked like they could collapse at any moment…such a contrast!

We had a sobering visit to the second largest American memorial cemetery for World War II soldiers killed in battles in these island areas…it left me in tears…the white marble crosses went on forever for 152 acres.  The additional alphabetical lists of soldiers’ names that were missing in action were engraved on many huge walls; they were from states all over America and this clearly took my breath away…literally thousands of names.

Larry, in his raincoat, wandered with his camera through one of the areas of the 17,000 white marble crosses and graves at the American Memorial Cemetery just southeast of the Manila city center.  It rained most of this morning…appropriate for the heavens to also drop tears on this solemn site.

On the bright side, I also had tears in my eyes when our ship’s Philippine crew members, over 200 of the 600 on board, were able to see their families while we were in port in Manila for two days.  Some had not seen their wives or held their babies that had been born while they were working the past months on our ship.  Some of the Philippine staff members brought their families on board to proudly show them where they worked.  You cannot find more adorable, beautiful babies and smiling children anywhere in the world! 

Here are a few of our Philippine crew members anxiously peering over the ship’s third floor Promenade railing to see their family members for the first time in many months.

Philippine dancers, marching bands with twirlers, saluting Coast Guard men in uniform, and many locals gave us a fantastic welcome upon our arrival, and as our visit ended, there were more bon voyage performances and  festivities held for us on the dock. 

Here is our ship’s captain giving a loving farewell group hug to some of the crew’s Philippine family members who came down to the dock to release their bon voyage balloons… and then,  as the captain blew the ship’s very loud three long horn blasts signaling our departure from the harbor, we reluctantly sailed away.

Our ship arrived in Hong Kong  harbor at 6:00 a.m. in the morning on March 7th.  Hong Kong’s 7 million people (and 8,000 taxi cabs!) are now governed by the People’s Republic of China, since the transition from British rule in the late 1990’s.  Hong Kong’s famed harbor contains 2 large islands that are now connected by huge tunnels built in 1972 that are 70 feet below the water’s surface.  This world-renowned harbor is ringed by high rise buildings; the tallest, currently, is 118 stories high.

While the mist and fog from a rain the night before began to lift, we took an amazing ride on a cog-wheeled train up to the top of one of the high mountains surrounding Hong Kong harbor to get a bird’s eye view of this overwhelming harbor area.  The train was climbing a dizzying 45-degree angle the entire 5 km way, stopping several times to pick up more passengers. Needless to say, we were hoping the track cogs would hold us from crashing down to the bottom of the mountain!   Below is the hazy view that was the payoff for this magnificent train ride: 

The sun soon came out and we took a ride in the Hong Kong (Victoria) Harbor on a sampan and discovered the world’s largest floating restaurant, partially seen above through the bow of our sampan.  The restaurant was named “Jumbo”…it had seating for 2,000 guests!

 Traditional Hong Kong shopping at Stanley Center, above, gave us a taste for the myriads of bargain products for sale to locals and the 32 million tourists that visit Hong Kong annually! 

The glamorous shopping for the more affluent Hong Kong residents and world tourists stretches for miles and miles, dwarfing Rodeo Drive in Hollywood.   Glimmering shopping malls with marble floors and stores with famed designer clothing, cosmetics, shoes and more, are within one block of our ship’s dock.  (I have a feeling many guests on our cruise ship left quite a few of their dollars here in Hong Kong!)  Everywhere in Hong Kong the streets and buildings are impeccably clean and the people are extremely courteous, friendly, and helpful.

This photo, not in perfect focus due to the night skies, gives you a glimpse of the spectacular nightly light show in Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbor.  Brilliant green laser lights, sky lights, and undulating magical colors are displayed by hundreds of high rise office buildings.  The light show is all synchronized to dramatic symphony music played in various locations over loud speakers all along the harbor... heard and seen for an unforgettable 15 minutes starting at 8:00 p.m. year round. 

This light show, a grand finale of our 2-day Hong Kong visit, will long be remembered as a highlight of our voyage.  We now sail on to Ho Chi Minh City((Phy My),Vietnam and Singapore.